"They Should Not Be Ultimately Dumped As Criminals": Madras HC Calls for Reformative Approach Towards Teenagers Indulging In Reckless Driving
The Madras High Court recently urged the state authorities to devise a reformative mechanism for addressing teenagers engaging in reckless driving.
The Court requested the assistance of the State Public Prosecutor in devising such a mechanism.
The bench of Justice N Anand Venkatesh observed, “The teenagers who are involved in such bike racing and reckless driving of vehicles should not be ultimately dumped as criminals and at the same time, they should also be made to understand the consequences of their reckless driving of vehicles. Therefore, there must be a mechanism like a conveyor belt where the teenagers who indulge in such reckless driving must get into the system and undergo a process and ultimately when they get out, they must have reformed themselves and will no longer involve in such reckless driving in future. Criminal jurisprudence in this area must be more towards reformation than branding such teenagers as criminals.”
The Court noted the relevant portions of the status report submitted by the Additional Commissioner of Police which mentioned the vulnerable stretches for young motorists in Greater Chennai, methods adopted to discourage racing on such roads along with future action plan proposals such as Advanced Surveillance and Monitoring System & Targeted Education and Awareness Program.
As per the Court, the persons, who are indulging in such reckless driving of vehicles mostly fall within the age group of 18 years to 25 years and are in the grips of hormones without sufficient maturity.
The Court further noted that the easy availability of high-powered bikes in the market made the act of reckless driving by teenagers easier. According to the Court, social media is also impacting such teenagers, as they post these heroic deeds on their social media platforms just to get the likes and comments of others.
The State Public Prosecutor submitted that the Additional Commissioner of Police has already got in touch with the experts in adolescent psychology and they are trying to come up with a mechanism to deal with the psychology of those teenagers.
The Court wanted to take the present case as a sample case to evolve a mechanism to effectively deal with cases of this nature in the future.
Hence, the Court directed this case to be posted under the caption “for passing further orders”.
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